Alan Greenspan’s long-time advocacy of gold

As most of you already know, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan is a long-time advocate of private gold ownership as well as the gold standard. Some see his chairmanship of the Fed and gold advocacy as contradictory, but in fact, Greenspan always saw the two as complementary. Here is a very interesting quote taken from an interview in the World Gold Council’s Gold Investor magazine in February, 2017:

“When I was Chair of the Federal Reserve I used to testify before US Congressman Ron Paul, who was a very strong advocate of gold. We had some interesting discussions. I told him that US monetary policy tried to follow signals that a gold standard would have created. That is sound monetary policy even with a fiat currency. In that regard, I told him that even if we had gone back to the gold standard, policy would not have changed all that much.”

Many years ago, we cataloged those exchanges between then-Texas congressman Paul and Greenspan here at USAGOLD. I was among the small group at the time who appreciated the dialogue as friendly intellectual exchanges between two heavyweights and not as a contentious debate between adversaries. In the preface to the transcripts written several years ago, I pointed out that both seemed to enjoy and relish the exchanges. It is interesting that Greenspan would reference the banter between the two in such a telling way so many years later.

Here is an excerpt from that preface:

In putting this page together, I was struck with Dr. Paul’s ability to cut through the political gamesmanship that necessarily comes with being chairman of the Fed to Alan Greenspan, the man and political/economic philosopher. What emerges is a powerful figure conflicted between the practical manager charged with operating within the current fiat monetary system and the philosopher-academic with a “nostalgia,” as he puts it, for the days of the gold standard. Without Dr. Paul’s incisive questioning, I doubt that this aspect of the Greenspan character would have found its way to the public venue and the historical record. Though the relationship appears adversarial at first blush, one also detects a certain amount of mutual respect and interest. Says Dr. Paul of the exchanges: “My questions are always on the same subject. If I don’t bring up the issue of hard money vs. fiat money, Greenspan himself does.”

Here is a final anecdote from that same preface I have always appreciated:

“In closing, I would like to pass along an anecdote reported by SmartMoney’s Donald Luskin in a 2002 interview of Ron Paul. Paul told Luskin the story of his owning an original copy of Gold and Economic Freedom, and asking Greenspan to sign it. While doing so, Paul asked him if he still believed what he wrote in that essay some 40 years ago. That tract, written during Greenspan’s days as a devotee of Ayn Rand, is a strongly worded, no-holds-barred attack on fiat money and the central banks as an engine of the welfare state. It also endorses the gold standard as a deterrent to politicians’ penchant for running deficits and printing money. Greenspan – enigmatic as ever – responded that he “wouldn’t change a single word.”

Upon leaving the Fed, Greenspan has spoken as a private citizen on several occasions about gold as an investment.  In 2014 at a conference sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, Financial Times’ Gillian Tett asked him: “Do you think that gold is currently a good investment?” He replied,  “Yes. Remember what we’re looking at. Gold is a currency. It is still, by all evidence, a premier currency. No fiat currency, including the dollar, can match it.” (At the time of the conference, gold was trading in the $1200 range.)

–– Michael J. Kosares, USAGOLD

Please see the following at our Gold Classics Library:

Ron Paul-Alan Greenspan transcripts (1997-2005)

Gold and Economic Freedom / Alan Greenspan / 1967